Australian fury at Bali bomber

Amrozi was paraded before the media on Wednesday

Pictures of a Bali bombing suspect laughing and reports that he said he was "delighted" by the attack have been widely condemned in Australia.

It makes you feel sick and it makes you feel sad

Monica Sanderson, mother of Bali victim

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said they were "ugly images", while families of the bomb victims said they were sickened.

But Indonesian police defended their unusual interrogation of the man, Amrozi, which was carried out in view - although out of earshot - of the media.

Bali police chief Major General Budi Setiawan told reporters: "We have very special tactics and strategy in questioning Amrozi".

Police said on Thursday that they were preparing to release details and photographs of 10 more people suspected of taking part in the 12 October bombing, which killed more than 190 people.

Outrage

The images of the "laughing bomber" - as the Sydney Morning Herald termed him - came as the Australian death toll rose to 66.

Up to 20 more people are still missing, most are also believed to be Australian.

Monica Sanderson, the mother of one of three Australian rugby players killed in Bali, said Amrozi's reaction was "beyond comprehension".

"It makes you feel sick and it makes you feel sad," she said.

"Young kids on a holiday of a lifetime get killed, and these people carry on like that."

Reporters who witnessed the interrogation on Wednesday said that Amrozi, 40, turned towards them and waved during his questioning.

'Different methods'

Mick Keelty, head of the Australian Federal Police, acknowledged Amrozi's interrogation looked like a circus.

But he cautioned that Indonesia's justice system was "very different" to Australia's

"What we've got to be careful of here is that we don't impose our own judicial system on Indonesia," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Indonesia's police chief, General Da'i Bachtiar, also played a tape which appeared to be Amrozi apologising to his family.

Apology

"I only want to say I would like to apologise to my family, younger brother, nephews, nieces, parents and other relatives that I had no intention to involve them in this incident", the tape said.

"It was only me and my youngest brother Ali Imron," the tape added.

Mr Bachtiar said that Amrozi had met a leading member of militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah, Imam Samudra, in 2000, and the two men had planned the Bali bombing - meeting in Bali on 6 October.

Samudra, 32, has been on Indonesia's wanted list for some time. He is implicated in a series of church bombings in the country during Christmas 2000.